Which to use
“patente” is a noun and “patients” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #32,949
- “patente” frequency rank
- #2,534
- “patients” frequency rank
- 35483
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | patente | patients |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Brevet émanant d’une autorité établissant un droit, un titre ou un privilège. | Masculin pluriel de patient. |
Where the eye mixes patente and patients
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between patente and patients
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: patente is \pa.tɑ̃t\ while patients is \pa.sjɑ̃\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35483, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
patente is recorded at frequency rank #32,949, classified as anoun, pronounced \pa.tɑ̃t\. patients is at rank #2,534, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pa.sjɑ̃\.
Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.
With a confusion score of 35483, this pair ranks #276,453 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of patente vs patients
Shared letters: aenpt. Private to "patente": -. Private to "patients": is.
"patente" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV · "patients" · 8 letters · shape CVCVVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "patente" and "patients" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "patente" or "patients" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "patente" and "patients" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "patente" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "patients" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #276,453 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "patente" and "patients" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Papeete vs patente". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #276,453 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.